Muslims have full faith in BJP: Narendra Modi

Ahmedabad : After Bharatiya Janata Party?s (BJP) landslide win at Gujarat municipal elections, Chief Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday said his party has managed to ?win? hearts of Muslims in the state.

?Out of 80% votes cast in favour of BJP, more than 30% came from the Muslim community. This clearly shows that BJP has been able to win the hearts of Muslims in Gujarat. They have full faith in us,? Modi was quoted as saying by local media on Wednesday.

The BJP even fielded 12 Muslim candidates this time, though only 1 won from Rajkot.

The infamous Gujarat riots of 2002 left hundreds of Muslims dead, injured and tortured and came as a blot in the BJP rule. The riots followed an incident of train burning in Godhra in which Hindus returning from Ayodhya were killed by a Muslim mob.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) swept the municipal polls in Gujarat after the counting was over on Tuesday night.

The six municipal corporations of Narendra Modi?s Gujarat-Ahmedabad, Surat, Rajkot, Vadodara, Bhavnagar and Jamnagar -went on polls on Sunday (Oct 10).

BJP has won 148 and its main rival Congress 38 of the 189 seats in Ahmedabad. Independents got three.

In Surat, BJP has bagged 98 out of 114 seats, while Congress has again won in 14. Independents got two.

In Rajkot, BJP has won 58 out of 69 seats.

In Vadodara, the BJP has got 61 of the 75 seats. Congress has won 11 seats.

In Bhavnagar, BJP has won in 41.

The BJP got 35 seats, Congress 16, Independents 6 in Jamnagar.

After the counting was over at 14 centres across the six cities, BJP wrapped up 441 out of 555 seats, while Congress bagged 100 and Independents won 14 seats.

Earlier, on Monday, the state Election Commission dismissed Congress? demand to hold on the municipal election results till the upcoming Panchayat polls

The BJP has a thumping victory in the last elections in 2005.

On Sept 17 this year, Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi?s 61st birthday turned out to be a day of double celebrations for the BJP state unit as the party wrestled the Kathlal assembly seat from the Congress in a by-poll for the first time in five decades.

BJP’s Kanu Dabhi polled 62,120 votes against his nearest Congress rival Ghelabhai Zala?s 40,573 votes, winning the seat by a margin of over 21,000 votes.

This victory took the BJP?s tally in the state Assembly to 122 in a House of 182 members. The Congress has 54 legislators, while others hold six seats.

It was the maiden time that the BJP won the Kathlal seat since the formation of the Assembly constituency in 1960.